Mister Enemy - A Troy Van Leeuwen Fan Site

Fernandes Interview
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Queens of the Stone Age's Rock n' Roll Community
By Bruno Palma Fernandes

With a solid career made through three albums well received by critic ("Queens Of The Stone Age", 98; "R", 2000; and "Songs For The Deaf", 2002), Queens Of The Stone Age had a shake in the beginning of 2004, when vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme fired bassist Nick Oliveri. Until that moment it seemed that both were the equal leaders of the band and it was just because of it that rumors surfaced about the band being over. But Josh shut a lot of people's mouth up, showing he was always in charge, and that QOTSA was preparing their fourth album.

In the recently released "Lullabies To Paralyze", Josh is accompanied by Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar), Alain Johannes (bass), Mark Lanegan (vocals) and Joey Castillo (drums), besides a lot of guests. Nick Oliveri, meantime, heard a preview of the album and provoked, saying that he was the missing part in the new work, and that if Josh wanted him back, all that was needed was a phone call. By the time he was fired, the naked guy still said that without him, the band was now to be called "Queens Lite".

In a interview to Dynamite, Troy Van Leeuwen cleared that the band is really interested in achieving new horizons, though the essence remains the same and with nothing "light" to take the fun of a group that's been giving their blood to put rock back on track. Confira.

Dynamite: Josh Homme was hospitalized recently with a lunge infection. Is he all right?

Troy Van Leeuwen: He's ok now, recovered. It was just a lil' scary. He had blood in his lunge.

Dyna: "In My Head" has that same note ringing all the time, as had "Go With The Flow" (hit from "Songs For The Deaf"). Do they have any connection?

Troy: There's no connection between those two songs. "In My Head" was written by me, Josh Freese and Josh Homme. It's in the last Desert Sessions record (entitled "In My Head... Or Something"). And Josh wrote "Go With The Flow" alone, so there's not really a connection there.

Dyna: How did the contributions of Shirley Manson (Garbage) and Brody Dale (Distillers) in "You've Got A Killer Scene There, Man" occurred?

Troy: They were visiting us in studio and we really needed some female vocals for that track. It was something that happened in a very natural way. It was really appropriate to had put girls singing in the back.

Dyna: In the b-side of the "Little Sister" single was included a remix for the title-track and another one for "The Blood Is Love". That wasn't the first time a QOTSA song was remixed. How is that relationship of the band, which is more identified with rock n' roll than electronic music?

Troy: We like that people do remixes because it's a good way to have an alternative version of the song. We all really like dance music too. It doesn't matter if it's electronic music or boogie-woogie. We like that girls shake their asses. We also make a sort of exchange, like we do with UNKLE (trip hop British group). Josh and me were in their last album and they made a remix for us.

Dyna: Josh'd said that he would bring Disney musicians to play in the record. Are they playing on the hidden track?

Troy: Yes, that's them. They play at the Disney fanfare, the one that play on the park's parades. They also play in "Someone's In The Wolf", "I Never Came"... There are horns all over the record, in some places its just a mere hidden detail.

Dyna: The intro in "The Blood Is Love" and the melody in "Lullaby" were inspired in the kind of music that you hear in amusement parks?

Troy: "The Blood Is Love" it's a good representation of what life is. And life is a circus. One time where everything's fucked and heavy, then it goes back to the circus, and then heavy again. It's like that, full of ups and downs. Think of life as a circus it's something quite common, especially with this band. It's on those patterns we live in.

Dyna: The band came to Brazil in 2001 and seemed to have fun on a samba school court. Did you guys ever thought of using that type of percussive sound?

Troy: I don't know why I wasn't in the band. I really want to go to Brazil. We're talking and thinking of showing up there this year still. When we get there we'll talk about that kind of sound.

Dyna: Josh went back to the studio in October to Record only two more tracks ("The Fun Machine Took A Shit And Died" and "Don't Need a Name"), which he didn't want to leave behind. What's gonna be done to it?

Troy: "The Fun Machine Took A Shit And Died" it's still not finished. It was being mixed the last time I heard about it. And "Don't Need a Name" was a temporary title for "Broken Box", which ended up in the album.

Dyna: "Lullabies To Paralyze" is the fourth album of the band and the fourth with a different line-up. Will the current line-up remain?

Troy: I think that more important than keeping the same line-up is to keep always an interesting line-up. I don't know if Queens Of The Stone Age is gonna have that line-up forever. I don't know if I'm gonna play with Queens Of The Stone Age forever. What I know is that I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

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